Semiya upma is that one dish I never hated to eat then, and that one dish I could eat all day long nowadays! This is roasted vermicelli cooked with Indian spices and vegetables. From breakfast to dinner you can eat it as a meal, or a snack. A healthy and light breakfast. Semiya Upma is a simple dish that you can prepare in a jiffy. Perfect anybody-can-cook dish suitable for bachelors, beginners, or anyone who loves to cook.
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One of the most popular South Indian dish that you can cook and serve for breakfast-lunch-evening snack-dinner. It’s that dish that you can make in a jiffy. Suitable for bachelors, beginner cooks or even for those amazing experience cooks.
A healthy and light breakfast.
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with upma,. When I was kid I the moment I hear thats on menu, I used to go hide in my closet. I really don’t know why but just hearing the word upma made me sad and I never wanted to eat it all my life. Mom would sometimes not give up trying and she would feed me the upma with sugar. It worked, I could push down upma with sugar, actually loads of sugar each bite.
I can’t believe I actually had likings for sweet or sugar just like that those days. I even remember sneaking into the kitchen one evening scooping out jam from the bottle and infact finished off the entire bottle in one go! I’m serious! Was I feeling okay after gulping down almost half the bottle of jam? NO. Boy my tummy hurt so bad that night, I couldn’t see. Yea obvisouly I was also on sugar rush you see!
All things have so changed. Now the sight of jam, sugar doesn’t excite me at all. In fact I can’t even eat(even a bit) my morning bread with jam. If there is bread for breakfast there has to be spicy omelette.
During my college days I started eating upma. Slowly I even started liking it then. During my first pregnancy I hated the upma all over again. The sigth of upma made me feel nauseauted. After my daughter was born, I started cooking upma like for the first time in my life. I have always eaten mom’s upma but never really wanted to cook. When we started introducing our daughter to solids, that’s when I started cooking all dishes. Upma is one of the easy to eat and healthy too when you add more vegetables. Upma with a dash of ghee is absolutely delicious – that’s what I thought when I tasted upma made for our daughter :D. Amazing how our feelings/likings towards a particular thing changes, sometimes for no reason at all. Upma has been that to me. Hated it , loved it, back to hating it, and rolling back to loving it all over again. As of now I simply LOVE upma. I guess a good texture of the upma not mushy at all would make it the best dish. 😀 I cant believe i’m saying that!
This post really dragged me to the memory lane. Sorry if I bored you guys!
Do you hate or love upma?
Are you a upma lover convert like me?
Let me know, would to hear your stories!
Watch step by step video of how to make semiya upma.
Pair it with breakfast chutney for a great breakfast option. Also, try other delicious breakfasts like Idli or easy Idiyappam.
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Semiya Upma
Ingredients
- 1 cup semiya/vermicelli
- 1 large onion(sliced thin)
- 5-6 nos green chillies (or use as per taste preferenec)
- 1 inch ginger
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 1 large carrot (finely chopped)
- 3 nos beans(finely chopped)
- ½ cup fresh/frozen peas
- 10 whole cashews
- 1+1 teaspoon ghee
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 tablespoon channa dal
- 1 tablespoon urad dal
- Salt to taste
- 2 cups water
Instructions
- 1. Cook finely chopped veggies(carrot, beans, peas) with a small pinch of salt. Keep aside.
- 2. Heat 1 teaspoon ghee. Roast semiya in ghee until it begins to turn golden brown. Remove roasted semiya onto a plate.
- 3. Heat 1 teaspoon of ghee and oil in a deep bottom pan. To hot oil add mustard seeds and wait till they crackle. Add urad dhal, channa dal and saute for a minute or till they turn golden brown.
- 4. Add ginger, curry leaves, green chilies. Give it a stir.
- 5. Saute thin slices of onions. Chuck in the cashews and saute it until cashews begin to turn golden brown.
- 6. Add salt to taste and boiled vegetables mix well, fry for 20 seconds.
- 7. Pour 2 cups of water. When water comes to boil add the cooked veggies stir and cook covered on low flame for few minutes until semiya is cooked well(not mushy).
- 8. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with spicy coconut chutney, pickle or the way my daughter likes it with sugar(Oh, I hate to eat my upma with sugar! But I see kids love to eat it that way
)
)Notes
1. Use any veggies of your choice, sweet corn, capsicum, mochaikai ..will be good options.
2. Use more green chillies if you like it spicy.
3. Add a dash of ghee once the upma is cooked just immediately after switching off the flame. Will enhance the flavor and taste of the dish.
4. Can easily replace semiya/vermicelli with millet of your choice for very healthy options.
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